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About Me

My day job is doing build and release engineering for Mozilla. I graduated from Toronto's Seneca College with a degree in Software Development in 2009. My spare time involves teaching anything I have learned about systems, programming, media, web development and anything to do with the open web to anyone who want to learn. When I'm not by a computer I'm making films & videos, running, hiking, swimming, playing hockey, walking the dog, cooking or otherwise trying to pack a lot into a busy life.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Periodically, I get asked if there are more gender independent/
gender non-conforming/gender imaginative/ gender creative/gender
variant/ transgender/ trans children and youth because there is more
awareness of transpeople and trans-identities in society.

The answer is always no.

More
awareness may mean more legal protections, and it may mean that there
are more caring adults willing to support children and youth, but
knowledge of transpeople does not make children up and decide that their
own gender or sex needs to be changed. Even if it did (which it does
not) I'd like to suggest that there is very little cultural material for
children about transpeople. Carly, She's still My Daddy is just not showing up in many kindergarten libraries. And while there are children who read 10,000 Dresses
and think "I'm just like the main character" it's not like the image it
paints is so alluring that other children are going to think "hey,
that's not me but I wish it was". The images of trans people that young
children are exposed to are few, hard to find, and seldom positive. I
dream of the day that resources like Reflection Press' Gender Now Coloring Book are more widely available, and even when they are, more awareness is not going to create more trans children.

The
claim that there are more gender independent/ gender
non-conforming/gender imaginative/ gender creative/gender variant/
transgender/ trans children and youth because here is more awareness of
transpeople and trans-identities in society, is the polite way of saying
"we recruit" and it's a slander that plays into the primal fear that
"we are out to get your children". The myth that faeries would steal
unbaptized children persists, and I remember being told that if I was
bad, the gypsies would come take me away. The culture that I am a part
of has a long history of claiming that those it wants to other will
'steal the children'. The antisemitic belief that Jews steal children to
make Passover matza is a gross and disturbing example, but the idea
that "we are out to get the children" has been proven over and over
again as a successful way to villianize whole people. We the othered
then have to spend time defending ourselves, and proving that we are not
out to get your children. Often we are told that the way to do this is
to act as much like the majority culture as possible and to be quiet.
Talk about silencing marginalized voices.

The idea that there are
more (and younger) trans people because of greater awareness of trans
people also serves to distracts us from what is actually going on. Peggy Orenstein in Cinderella Ate My Daughter,
documents a huge cultural shift towards an increasingly rigid gendering
of childhood and children. She discusses at some length the marketing
brilliance of clearly defining "boys toys" and "girls toys" and how
doing so means that fewer older siblings are sharing their toys with
differently gendered younger siblings and thus more toys are being sold.
I frequently remind teachers that childhood now is more gendered than
it was when we were children. I was born in the mid seventies and
grew-up with Free to Be You and Me. While the message was that "every
boy in this land grows to be his own man, every girl in this land grows
to be her own women" and not "everyone gets to figure out who they are
and then live that way" there was more room in the categories of "girl"
and "boy". I could refuse to wear dresses, mostly play with boys,
try-out and play on boys sports teams, and my behaviour was seen as
"feminist" or that of a "tomboy", and inside the category of girl.

The
other thing that has been happening at the same time, has been
happening in the DSM. The DSM III first introduced a childhood
diagnosis, Gender Identity Disorder in Childhood in 1980, and at the
time it required:

Table 1 DSM-III diagnostic criteria for Gender Identity Disorder of Childhood For females
A. Strongly and persistently stated desire to be a boy, or insistence
that she is a boy (not merely a desire for any perceived cultural advantages from being a boy) B. Persistent repudiation of female anatomic structures, as manifested by at least one of the following repeated assertions (1) that she will grow up to become a man (not merely in role) (2) that she is biologically unable to become pregnant (3) that she will not develop breasts (4) that she has no vagina (5) that she has, or will grow, a penis C. Onset of the disturbance before puberty ...

For males A. Strongly and persistently stated desire to be a girl, or insistence that he is a girl. B. Either (1) or (2) (1) persistent repudiation of male anatomic structures, as manifested by at least one of the following repeated assertions (a) that he will grow up to become a woman (not merely in role) (b) that his penis and testes are disgusting or will disappear (c) that it would be better not to have a penis or testes
(2) preoccupation with female stereotypical activities as manifested by
a preference for either cross-dressing or simulating female attire, or by a compelling desire to participate in the games and pastimes of girls. C. Onset of the disturbance before puberty. ...

The
DSM IV broadened the diagnostic criteria for Gender Identity Disorder
in children, with the result that children no longer had to state a
clear interest in or belief that they are the other sex. Instead it
said:

In children, the disturbance is manifested by four (or more) of the following:

repeatedly stated desire to be, or insistence that he or she is, the other sex

in boys, preference for cross-dressing or simulating femaleattire; in girls, insistence on wearing only stereotypical masculineclothing

strong and persistent preferences for cross-sex roles in make-believe play or persistent fantasies of being the other sex

intense desire to participate in the stereotypical games and pastimes of the other sex

strong preferences for playmates of the other sex

In children, the disturbance is manifested by any of the following:

in boys, assertion that his penis or testes are disgusting or will disappearor assertion that it would be better not to have a penis,or aversion toward rough-and-tumble playand rejection of male stereotypical toys, games and activities;

in girls, rejection of urinating in a sitting position,assertion that she has or will grow a penis,or assertion that she does not want to grow breasts or menstruate,or marked aversion toward normative feminine clothing.

The disturbance is not concurrent with a physical intersex condition.

The disturbance causes clinically significant distress orimpairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

When
in boys, an "aversion toward rough-and-tumble play and rejection of
male stereotypical toys, games and activities", and in girls a "marked
aversion toward normative feminine clothing." is considered a
"manifestation of the disturbance" many more children can be
pathologized, many more children can be considered insufficiently
feminine or insufficiently masculine. It also teaches parents that their
children's behaviour is wrong and not something that normal children
do. I ask you, gentle readers, who's coming for the children? I

So,
what "makes" gender independent/ gender non-conforming/gender
imaginative/ gender creative/gender variant/ transgender/ trans children
and youth? I have several answers, but I believe that key among them is
the simultaneous narrowing of the cultural understandings of what it
means to be a boy or girl and the broadening of the definition of Gender
Identity Disorder for children. Simply put, when there are fewer ways
to be a girl or boy, and more ways to be identified as having GID, more
children will find that they simply can not fit into what is expected of
them, and instead find themselves being pathologized.